Andaman Islands: 5 Things About The Place Flight 370 Could Have Landed

New radar data suggests that the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 may have been hijacked and deliberately flown towards the Andaman Islands. We’re sure you have a lot of questions about the Indian-owned islands where the plane may have landed, so HollywoodLife.com has rounded up five key facts about the Andaman Islands.

Investigators have expanded the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to include a remote, mostly uninhabited, Indian-owned archipelago called the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. At the request of the Malaysian government, the Indian government is conducting a huge search of the waters surrounding the island chain. Let’s take a closer look at the islands.

1. The Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands form an archipelago located in the Indian Ocean, approximately 850 miles east of the mainland. There 572 islands in the group, but only 37 are inhabited, according to The Washington Post. Nearly 380,000 people live on the island chain, according to India’s 2011 census.

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2. In December, 2004, the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands were devastated by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that caused the deaths of more than 200,000 people across a dozen countries, according to The Straits Times.

3. The island chain was once a penal colony. British colonial rulers used to send criminals to the islands — then known as Kalapani — during the 19th century.

4. Marco Polo discovered the islands in the 13th century. He described the natives in his writings, calling them “cannibals,” according to the Daily Mirror, and referred to one island as “Angamanain.”

5. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about the Andaman Islands in his Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of the Four.

Malaysia Airlines: New Data Suggests Flight 370 Plunged Into The Sea

New theories are still being posited one full week after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing on March 8. Was it a hijacking? An act of terrorism? Or did the aircraft, which was carrying 239 passengers, just crash? On March 14, new data was reported that seemed to confirm the last possibility, that Flight 370 plunged into the sea after making a wayward turn towards the Indian Ocean.

The newly revealed claim that the Boeing 777 changed its course and began flying towards the Indian Ocean (after its transponders had been switched off) seems to support the theory that this is a case of hijacking.

Analysts from U.S. Intelligence, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have tracked satellite data and pings in the Indian Ocean area that they attribute to Flight 370. And without any visual confirmation of the aircraft, there is only one grim conclusion to make: “There is probably a significant likelihood” that the aircraft is now at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, an official said, according to CNN.

What do YOU think about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s mysterious disappearance, HollywoodLifers? Share your thoughts in the comments.